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[...right. She's probably mentioned something about Erik being ugly but never the full extent of it.

Well.

This is getting awkward.]

I do seem to attract ridiculousness, don't I? Erik has a rather peculiar appearance. He...might also be lacking a certain facial feature that sits right in the center there. I don't think Hancock was upset about it but. I am afraid I may have given him the wrong idea. I have been spending a lot of time with him, lately. More time than I've been spending with Erik, I dare say. I've gotten myself into a bit of a mess, haven't I. Another mess. I'm always in a mess.

You do. I'll just have to be sensible for both of us, won't I?

Oh, I... can see how that would make it easy to mix them up, in the dark. No nose is a somewhat striking feature. Well, here, anyway. You'd be surprised what kind of monsters Rapture churned out.

Spending time with someone doesn't hurt, but if you find yourself feeling guilty? That's probably a sign something is wrong.

[She would know!]

Huh, then maybe it's a good thing I don't mind you in a mess? I don't know... really anything about romantic relationships, so I'm afraid I can't offer much advice.

I can be sensible! I was sensible for the majority of my lifetime!

[Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Christine.]

I figured out the differences rather quickly. Erik's cheekbones are far more distinguished.

[That's the nice way of saying that he looks like a skull, she supposes.]

There's a lot of things I feel guilty about.

[But whether or not Hancock is one of them...she's not going to admit quite yet. She doesn't know what she feels for him.]That's alright. Wasn't really looking for advice, I don't think. Just...wanted to talk. Feels good to get it off my chest.

Seems like your death is nothing at all like your life, doesn't it?

[I don't think anyone has seen so much good nature from Liz in a long time.]

Yeah well... join the club. Maybe we should get jackets. [Sarcasm]

I'm here to listen, if that's of any comfort to you. Just send me a message, and I'll be here.

My life was dreadful. That might be an exaggeration a bit. It wasn't so bad. The sort of privileged life that all the Victorian ladies dream of. But yes! Jackets. We could even...what do they call it. What's the word I'm looking for... Bedazzle. We could bedazzle our stylish guilt club jackets. Shall be all the new rage for angel fashion.

So you were kept in a metaphorical cage, more or less? I can't decide if that would be better or worse than being locked up in a real one.

Bedazzle. [Oh. My. God.]

I can honestly say I've never worn anything bedazzled. It just looks so... shiny.

[She's not sure if she approves or disapproves.]

Out of curiosity, have you told your almost-husband that that you almost kissed someone else? Maybe you would feel less guilty if you tried that. He couldn't be too upset over an accident, could he?

[Hmmmmm.]

Unless there's some reason you think you shouldn't?

There's a lovely sort of torment involved when you can see freedom right outside your window. And that it could be yours, if only you were brave enough to take it. Your own mind ends up being the cage, in the end.

[But enough about that...this bedazzling thing is amusing her right now, okay.]

Well, when in Hell, right? No demon would dare mess with two angels glittering so wonderfully in gaudy rhinestones. We'd truly be a force of nature.

[Her ridiculousness is charming, right?]

I haven't spoken of it to him, yet. I intend to but it's a delicate subject. He's the sort to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. I know that he wouldn't hurt me. I worry that he'd make an attempt at hurting Hancock.

A cage is a cage, I guess; never any fun for the bird.

[Full serious tone:] It's very likely we would blind them, with so much excess glitter.

You think he'll take it out on Hancock? Odd. Seems like it's you he should be upset with.

No offense, Chris.

We'll have to invest in some quality sunglasses.

[Okay, okay, time to be actually serious.]

No offense taken. He should be upset with me. He will be upset with me, I'm sure. He'll still go after Hancock, though. Eliminate the threat even if there is no actual threat.

How much damage could he really do? We can't die again, for one thing.

I wouldn't put anything past Erik, honestly. He's a very creative person. His voice is but one of his many, many talents.

[This conversation is really making Christine realize what an idiot she's been and oh God.

But is that going to stop her...?

Probably not.]

He sounds like a man not to be trifled with. Actually from what you've said, he almost reminds me of this mad artist I apprenticed with... uhg, he wanted me to sing for him and I wanted a line on his trafficking business.

Not that Erik sounds quite that bad, by any means.

He might be exactly that bad. Perhaps worse. I never said my relationship with my darling almost-husband was particularly healthy.

I was politely trying to avoid mentioning that it was child trafficking, so I sincerely hope he isn't quite that bad.

And trust me I would be the last person to judge what makes a healthy relationship.

[You know. She only drowned the creature that raised her. And her father, too. Oops.]

No, no. He's likely murdered and tortured hundreds of people but he's never done anything like that.

[As if murdering and torturing people is that much better???]

Elizabeth...why were you trying to get involved with a child trafficking business?

[a wisp of dry laughter]

You and I seem to keep like company.

[Oh... that. Well shit.]

That's... actually a complicated question. The short version is that I was trying to get revenge on a man who had wronged me. I needed Cohen to... set the bait, more or less.

[It doesn't sound so good that way, but it won't sound good regardless.]

The man was a lunatic. Even had this mask with tall white rabbit ears. I didn't see him wear it all the time, but he certainly had a... fixation.

[She tries to nudge the conversation away from the hand she had played; it's not a story she's told anyone, so she isn't even sure how to begin.]

[WELL. That's just oddly specific in a way that pertains to Christine.

Just a little. A tiiiiiiny little bit. Barely even a thing.]

You know how I just mentioned that Erik is lacking a nose? He has a bit of a complex about it. He wears a mask all the time. Doesn't have rabbit ears, though. But he definitely qualifies as a lunatic.

[Christine lets Elizabeth get away with turning the conversation a bit. Christine is more than happy to put all the snippets of information together on her own. Like a puzzle.

But also, she's sort of distracted by her own giggling at the thought of Erik's mask having rabbit ears.]

Really? Huh. Constants and variables, I guess-- which means, more or less, that across time and space some things change, and yet others remain the same. The multiverse is fond of it's patterns, like that.

Hm.

Now I'm starting to get concerned. Cohen did things such as electrocuted me when I wasn't dancing to his absurd standards; please don't tell me we have some common ground surrounding that kind of treatment, too.

Erik never went as far as electrocuting me... But he might as well have. You've heard me sing. It was by his guidance that I learned to do so. He wasn't exactly kind with his methods. Can't really argue with the results, though.

Wonderful. Don't we have fantastic taste in men?

And you wanted to find him again? Why?

You must see something good in him.

[That's a bit of personal experience leaking in. Elizabeth does have her own murdering torturing war machine that she'd give anything to find, so there is that.]

I see a lot of good in him. His sense of humor, such a typical thing of a woman to say about her lover but it is the truth. He hides it so well but he is incredibly compassionate when he chooses to be. His intellect is unparalleled, the sort of man that could have changed the world if the world had chosen to see him as it should have... But most of all, Erik saw something in me that no one else saw. It took me years and years before I even came close to seeing it myself. And so I had to find him to show him that. That I finally had the courage to be everything he thought I could be and more.

Well, at least you see something worthwhile in him. Cohen was no more than a means to an end for me, and I was glad when his part was played. I didn't see anything in him aside from madness, and perhaps greed.

And a severe love of white rabbits.

And I would be the last person to pass judgement on who you happen to love. Sometimes those feelings allow us to look past the worst in people. Even when they have hurt us.

[Gee it's almost like she knows what she's talking about]

Considering what he did to you, I cannot blame you for not seeing anything beyond. Sometimes there really isn't anything underneath the surface and a madman really is just a madman. But sometimes madmen also have their reasons. I don't exactly condone the many, many crimes Erik has committed but I forgive him for them. He's more than the horrible things he's done. Did Booker ever hurt you?

And I only had to deal with him for two months; part of his following, The Artist's Struggle. I wasn't even his main fixation; poor, poor Fitzpatrick... and, the handful of men before him.

[Look at you Liz, charming the gay.]

I would say Cohen defined himself by his sins; I'm not sure he was capable of a single act of kindness. It sounds like your Erik is at least a better man than he.

We all have some blood on our hands, after all.

[ouch, right in the feels.]

Yes, he did.

But he did everything he could to undo it. Even though the cost was high. He paid his debt.

Two months too many, by the sound of it. Did anyone ever manage to stop this man? Seems like the sort of terror that ought to be stopped.

[And Erik's Opera Ghost antics weren't...? Christine, shut your mouth.]

I believe that Erik tried to define himself that way, for a time. As if it would...protect him. Treading some invisible line of what makes a man, what makes a monster. But yes. That we certainly do.

[look at all the pain in this conversation so much pain omg]

The more and more I learn about Booker, the more similar our stories become, my dearest Elizabeth. In the end, Erik tried to make sure I'd live a life in the light, tried to undo the damage he did. Clearly, it didn't work too well.

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wow this thread is suddenly full of feels I LOVE IT

BAM feels out of nowhere xD

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